Shakespeare's Noise"You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate / As reek o'th'rotten fens, whose loves I prize / As the dead carcasses of unburied men / That do corrupt my air: I banish you!" (from Coriolanus) Kenneth Gross explores Shakespeare's deep fascination with dangerous and disorderly forms of speaking—especially rumor, slander, insult, vituperation, and curse—and through them offers a vision of the work of words in his plays. Coriolanus's taunts or Lear's curses force us to think not just about how Shakespeare's characters speak, but also about how they hear, overhear, and mishear what is spoken, how rumor becomes tragic knowledge for Hamlet, or opens Othello to fantastic jealousies. Gross also shows how Shakespeare's preoccupation with "noisy" speech echoed and transformed a broader cultural obsession with the perils of rumor, slander, and libel in Renaissance England. Elegantly written and passionately argued, Shakespeare's Noise will challenge and delight anyone who loves his plays, from scholars to general readers, actors, and directors. |
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... things written for the stage , drawing their en- ergy from the strange thing that is theater . My coda , " An Imaginary The- ater , " takes a yet different tack , or rather , it brings to the center of its concerns something that has ...
... things written for the stage , drawing their en- ergy from the strange thing that is theater . My coda , " An Imaginary The- ater , " takes a yet different tack , or rather , it brings to the center of its concerns something that has ...
Page 6
... thing subject to the idle chatter of the libelers and tavern haunters , at the mercy of scandalmongering pam- phleteers and players : " Already they print me , & make me speak to the world ; and shortly they will play me in what forme ...
... thing subject to the idle chatter of the libelers and tavern haunters , at the mercy of scandalmongering pam- phleteers and players : " Already they print me , & make me speak to the world ; and shortly they will play me in what forme ...
Page 7
... thing , the encounter with the problem of slander— a category under which the law accuses persons of false ... things that no common ear would apprehend . There is something else as well . Among many who write on the law in Shakespeare's ...
... thing , the encounter with the problem of slander— a category under which the law accuses persons of false ... things that no common ear would apprehend . There is something else as well . Among many who write on the law in Shakespeare's ...
Page 9
... things more suspect and protean . These words help create that atmosphere which just begins to form itself at the end of King Lear — where inquiring about " court news , " " who's in , who's out , " becomes a window into " the mys- tery ...
... things more suspect and protean . These words help create that atmosphere which just begins to form itself at the end of King Lear — where inquiring about " court news , " " who's in , who's out , " becomes a window into " the mys- tery ...
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A. C. Bradley abuse accusation actor Angelo Angus Fletcher audience Aufidius become blessing calls calumny Cambridge character Claudio Cordelia Coriolanus Coriolanus's curse dangerous dead death defamation Desdemona desire disguise drama dream Duke Duke's echo enemies face Faerie Queene false fame fantasy fear feel gestures ghost Hamlet hear hidden human Iago Iago's imagine Isabella Julien Gracq justice Kenneth Burke kind King Lear knowledge lago language Lear's listen London Lucio magical mask means Measure for Measure mouth noise once onstage Othello Oxford play play's Plutarch poison rage Renaissance revenge rumor scandal scene secret sense Shakespeare's shame shows silence slander space speak speakers speech stage storm story strange suggests theater thee thing thou tion tongues Tragedy trans truth turn uncanny University Press utterances violence voice vols Volscian William Empson witch words wounds York